SpaceX just launched the Falcon Heavy, its most powerful rocket, and landed 2 boosters
After years of delays and technical difficulties, it finally happened.
SpaceX just launched its most powerful rocket ever.
The Falcon Heavy took flight into a clear sky in Cape Canaveral, Florida with hundreds of thousands of people watching online and in person.
The roar of the rocket – which is effectively three of the company's Falcon 9 boosters strapped together – was deafening, even from miles away. The ground shook.
SpaceX then brought home two of the Falcon Heavy's three nine engine rocket boosters, landing two by land next to each other. SpaceX later announced that the third booster, which was expected to land on a drone ship in the ocean, didn't make it. Instead, it crashed into the ocean at about 300 miles per hour, according to SpaceX founder Elon Musk.
As the boosters came back to Earth, sonic booms announced their return to our planet.
The company's whimsical payload, a midnight-cherry Tesla Roadster blasting David Bowie and outfitted with three cameras, is now in space on its way into a distant orbit around Mars.
This might be the first and last time a Tesla gets its own ride to space.
If the rest of the flight profile goes according to plan, Musk's Roadster – complete with a "starman" dummy – will be inserted into a distant elliptical orbit near Mars, where it could remain for millions and millions of years, according to Musk.
That is... unless the red car makes some kind of unplanned encounter with the Red Planet far in the future.
"There’s a tiny, tiny chance it will hit Mars; extremely tiny," Musk said. "I wouldn’t hold your breath."
Still a ways to go
This history-making maiden flight of the Falcon Heavy took off from Kennedy Space Center's historic launch pad 39A, where the Apollo missions to the moon took flight and space shuttles launched years after that.
It's only fitting, then, that SpaceX would launch its next best rocket from that special pad refitted especially for the Falcon Heavy.
However, this launch was anything but a sure thing.
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Musk consistently downplayed expectations for this launch, saying on more than one occasion that he just hopes that if it fails, it does so far enough away from the pad that it wouldn't cause damage.
"It'll be a real huge downer if it blows up," Musk said on a press call before launch.
That said, it's not as if the Falcon Heavy is out of the woods for failure. The upper stage of the rocket will have to complete another burn and enter into a 6-hour coast phase that will bring it through intense radiation that surrounds Earth before moving out to its expected distant orbit near the red planet.
A heavy history
This SpaceX launch is years in the making.
Initially, SpaceX officials predicted that the company would launch the first flight of the Falcon Heavy in about 2013, but technical issues and delays plagued the program.
That is, until now.
And according to SpaceX, the Falcon Heavy could change the game for anyone hoping to launch large payloads to orbit, the moon, or Mars.
"With the ability to lift into orbit nearly 64 metric tons (141,000 lb) – a mass greater than a 737 jetliner loaded with passengers, crew, luggage and fuel – Falcon Heavy can lift more than twice the payload of the next closest operational vehicle, the Delta IV Heavy, at one-third the cost," SpaceX said.
The Falcon Heavy achieves that relatively low price through reusability. By landing all three of the rocket's boosters back on Earth, SpaceX can refurbish them and use them to launch other missions in the future.
According to Musk, that could mean it's "game over" for other heavy launch providers that aren't able to offer rides to space at that price point.
Miriam Kramer worked as a staff writer for Space.com for about 2.5 years before joining Mashable to cover all things outer space. She took a ride in weightlessness on a zero-gravity flight and watched rockets launch to space from places around the United States. Miriam received her Master's degree in science, health and environmental reporting from New York University in 2012, and she originally hails from Knoxville, Tennessee. Follow Miriam on Twitter at @mirikramer.
